PdV restarts vacuum unit at Cardon refinery

Venezuela's PdV took another step toward restoring sustained gasoline production capacity at the 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery.

The state-owned company restarted a vacuum distillation unit overnight and expects to restart its 54,000 b/d naphtha reformer unit early next week, according to a PdV refinery manager and two union officials.

Vacuum unit AV-3 is processing up to 45,000 b/d of residual fuel obtained from the CD-1 crude distillation unit at Cardon and the CD-4 crude distillation unit at the nearby 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery.

The two refineries comprise PdV's 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex in Falcon state. Both are currently processing a combined 127,200 b/d of 23-26°API crude, the manager said.

Output from the vacuum unit will be processed by the 86,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker, allowing PdV to raise gasoline production at Cardon to about 50,000 b/d by the end of October "as long as there are no new equipment breakdowns," the manager added.

The Cardon gasoline production goal includes 25,000 b/d from the FCC and 25,000 b/d from the naphtha reformer.

Sustaining Cardon's vacuum distillation unit is key to the success of PdV's efforts to replenish Venezuela's gasoline supply.

The company hopes to restart a second crude distillation unit – CD-3 – at Cardon this month.

The CRP manager and union officials are privately skeptical that PdV will succeed in raising gasoline output at the CRP to 100,000 b/d of gasoline output before December, when Venezuela will hold controversial National Assembly elections.

"We don't have sufficient upstream crude production from the western division around Lake Maracaibo nor the manpower and technical resources needed to increase output rapidly," the manager said. "Insufficient crude production limits our capacity to increase downstream volumes unless the government is willing to redirect some output from export markets to the CRP."

PdV and the government routinely blame US sanctions for the fuel shortage, even though Venezuela's refining problems are rooted in years of mismanagement and a lack of maintenance. But the oil sanctions imposed in January 2019 immediately cut off Venezuela's purchases of US gasoline and components.

The Opec country is currently consuming Iranian gasoline imported in three recent shipments.